September 04, 2006

Top 25

Exercising my God-given right as a college football fanatic...

No reason to deliberate in my mind, here is the new poll...

1. Texas2. USC- Yup, call me Lou Holtz because this week reflects exactly his thoughts at the end of Saturday. Texas and USC at the top because the talent they are shifting into their rotations is simply not allowing much of a drop off.

3. Ohio State4. Auburn5. West Virginia6. Florida State- This second-tier of teams represent those schools with great schedules of opportunity for the national championship. Ohio State plays Texas then will be favored for the rest of the year if they win. Auburn ventures outside the states of Alabama and Mississippi only two times all year. West Virginia will only not be favored against at Louisville on November 2nd. Florida State will be favored from here on out.

7. Notre Dame8. LSU9. Florida10. Louisville- Teams that still have rough schedules and in the case of Louisville, now they have something to answer for the loss of Michael Bush.

11. Oregon12. Michigan13. Georgia14. Iowa- What did we learn here? All four won at home against huge underdogs. Oregon and Michigan beat academic powers Stanford and Vanderbilt at home while Georgia and Iowa played I-AA teams Western Kentucky and Montana.

15. Oklahoma16. Miami, FL- Oklahoma will be in severe trouble when they travel to Eugene, OR to face the Ducks on Sept. 16th. Miami has a porous offensive line that Florida State exposed. The Canes won't lose for sometime but this is not a vintage Cane team.

17. UCLA18. Tennessee- Nice wins against solid teams, Cal and Utah, at home. The skeptics are still there for both programs but they both avoided the upset bug in the first week.

19. Virginia Tech20. Texas Tech21. Clemson22. Nebraska

- We learned that scheduling gimmes at home prove nothing about this foursome. Each have tests upcoming later. Virginia Tech faces Georgia Tech at home on Sept. 30th. Texas Tech goes to UTEP and TCU back-to-back on the 9th and 16th. Clemson does the same, visiting Boston College and Florida State in the next two weeks. Nebraska ventures to USC on the 16th.

23. TCU24. Pittsburgh25. Fresno State

- A gutcheck win (TCU), coupled with a strong, underrated showing (Pitt) against an ACC solid team in Virginia, and Fresno State beating a game Nevada team at home make a motley crew to round out the Top 25.

Teams to keep a close eye on are Boston College who host Clemson, South Carolina, who takes on Georgia, and Penn State who challenges Notre Dame in South Bend.